When practising martial arts you will be paired with many different types of people. There will be males, females, different shapes, sizes and skill levels. It’s important to remember how much you can learn from each one. For example when training with a beginner who is not that confident you can work on your control. It’s often harder to do a technique slowly than with speed as there is no momentum. So if you can practice this with the beginner your technique will improve. Similarly if your training with someone who is bigger and heavier than you your technique must improve in order for it to work. If you’re training with an “awkward” fighter, e.g. one who’s stance or strikes are different from the norm you need to work out how to overcome this. It is easy to look good when training with a partner who knows you and who is a similar size and skill level. That doesn’t prove how good you are as much as training with someone who presents a different challenge does however. So treat each partner as a puzzle to be solved and make the most of it. If you do that you will grow as a martial artist.

When engaging in submission fighting whether in class, a competition or even a cage fight it’s important to trust your technique. I often see beginners apply decent techniques in good positions only to see the position given up if the opponent hasn’t tapped out in a couple of seconds. With chokes and strangles as an example the technique may be good even if it’s not perfect and it may be a long time before your opponent feels the need to tap out or lose consciousness. Beginners often give up these winning positions, especially if the opponent shows what some of my senior students have christened the “poker
face”. Remember your opponent may look as though they are not hurting, but if they aren’t hurting you and you are applying a choke or lock on them then it may well be a bluff! The other mistake beginners often make is the “all or nothing” mistake. This is when they apply a choke or strangle with all their might for a few seconds and then relax when tired and begin again. Remember when you relax you release the pressure and allow your opponent another breath! It’s better to be steady, keeping the technique on for a sustained period without tiring yourself and starving your opponent of oxygen. If you remember these things you may well get a few higher grade scalps in the Dojo than you’re getting now and we all know how good that feels! The retribution will come in the next class of course but it’s worth it!

This is one of the biggest problems I face when trying to teach students. They try to be fast instead of concentrating on good technique. When you are learning a technique it is important to start slowly and ensure that the technique is good. Take your time, repeat the technique again and again making sure it’s correct and more importantly that it works! Every technique takes a sequence of movements in order to execute it correctly. If you are trying to speed it up often you will miss one of the parts of the sequence so it will not work. The other problem when you’re trying to be fast is that you are tense and so your muscles are not moving freely. This has the opposite effect! So am I saying that speed doesn’t count? Absolutely not! Real speed comes with fluidity and perfect execution however. The only way to achieve this speed is to spend time getting your technique right and repeating it again and again. The more effortless the execution is the faster and more effective it will be.

I’m currently training four brown belts towards black belt and as usual I started to think about what it takes to get to black belt. I’ve been a black belt for over fifteen years now and have taught hundreds if not thousands of students in that time. The ratio of students who take up Ju Jitsu and those who get a black belt is maybe a thousand to one. It is definitely hundreds to one. From learning other martial arts and talking to other martial arts teachers I believe that it’s the same in all such disciplines. Of course, life can get in the way. A new job, a heavy workload, a new partner, children, moving city or even country. These life reasons are not the ones that I’m currently dwelling on. It is the dedicated students for whom life does not get in the way and yet they still do not make the grade that interest me. It is also the reason my thoughts return to this when teaching brown belts.

To obtain a brown belt in my club, a student would have had to have trained diligently for at least three years and often considerably longer than that. Yet it seems to be the time that a lot of students give up at brown belt, just one step away from black. Why on earth would a student dedicate so much of their life to something only to give up at the final hurdle? Of course I know that first dan means first step and that getting a black belt is only the start and not the end of one’s training. Until that step is attained however it is often one of if not the primary goal for a martial artist because just the words “black belt” have an aura about them and is rightly seen as a worthy achievment.

Some students it seem to me are content to reach Brown. Well it’s nearly a black belt isn’t it? No it is not. That is like saying I nearly climbed Everest. You either have or you haven’t.

One thing that it doesn’t take is natural talent. In fact some of the most naturally gifted students don’t make it even as far as brown belt whereas some students that I thought would never last have made it to black. Sometimes the students who find training easy at the beginning never get any better. Is this because they didn’t have to work hard at the start so then struggle as things get tougher? I don’t know. One thing I do know is that one of my best ever students had two left feet for years! I thought he was a hopeless case but he was dedicated and became one of the best practitioners in the school. That is the first attribute necessary. A stubborn will that won’t give up!

One of the biggest hurdles of course is that the training is hard! From brown belt to black belt takes a minimum of a year. The student has to practice at least twice a week but usually three or four times a week. It is intense. The standard is much higher than anything the student has been used to. Injuries are inevitable as is training through the pain barrier. When injuries do occur, it is important to get back on the horse as soon as possible because the body will not like coming back to this training after a long layoff. If you can train at all, even in a very restricted way, that is much better than staying away. This is the main attribute, dedication.

Finally by this stage in the training, the practitioner is normally quite good. Bad habits will have crept in however and everything must be broken down to basics and re-learned. This can be difficult when some bad habits have worked well in the past. For this next step up though, those things will not work. That can be difficult for some people without the final attribute. Humility. All of the best instructors I’ve known have this in abundance.

One thing I will say is this. Subsequent dan grades are nice but passing first dan was one of the best days of my life without question. Every time I went into a changing room and took that belt out of my bag I felt immensely proud. I knew that I had earned it. I still feel the same way fifteen years later!